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Janet Karin OAM was born in Perth, Australia in 1938. She has danced with the Victorian Ballet Guild, Borovansky Ballet. She was a founding member of The Australian Ballet. She is a dance educator, and is the head of Artistic Studies and kinetic educator for the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, Australia.
Karin studied with Laurel Martyn OBE in Melbourne during the 1950s, and was a leading member of the Victorian Ballet Guild where she performed works such as Giselle and Swan Lake. Ballets choreographed by Martyn on her included: Voyager (as Priscilla), Royal Command, and Sylvia.
From 1960–1961 she danced with the Borovansky Ballet in its final season. The Borovansky Ballet was founded in 1940 by Edouard Borovansky.
In 1962 Karin joined an exciting new company founded by Dame Peggy van Praagh known as the Australian Ballet as a soloist. In 1966 she was promoted to the rank of Principal Artist. During her career with the Australian Ballet, she danced many roles including: Debutante in Melbourne Cup, Mazurka in Les Sylphides , the Lilac Fairy in Aurora's Wedding, Myrtha in Giselle, [1] the Second Ballerina in Ballet Imperial and Clytemnestra in Electra .
In 1967, Karin and her then husband, fellow Principal Artist, Bryan Lawrence left the Australian Ballet and established the Bryan Lawrence School of Ballet in Canberra ACT. The school also had its own performing arm, presenting works such as Coppélia and Giselle to Canberra audiences.
In 1971, Dame Peggy van Praagh, the founding director of the Australian Ballet became patron of the school until her death in 1990.
Under Karin's guidance, from 1987, the school became known as the National Capital Ballet School, and the associated performing company became known as the National Capital Dancers. Over the years, Janet commissioned new works from well known choreographers such as: Joe Scoglio, Paul Mercurio, Garth Welch and Natalie Weir.
In 1989, Karin received an Order of Australia Medal for her services to dance, and Noel Pelly AM accepted patronage of the school.
In 1992 and 1993 Robert Ray choreographed Cinderella and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Dancers, with both productions receiving the Canberra Critics Circle Award; and in 1996, the National Capital Dancers collaborated with the October Ballet Company from Vietnam during their three-month residency in Canberra.
In 1997, Kylie Hunter took over the directorship of the National Capital Ballet School when Karin moved to Melbourne to take up a new position at the Australian Ballet.
Karin has developed a number of secondary and tertiary dance education programs, has lectured with the University of Sydney, Australian National University and the University of Melbourne; and has published a number of papers and studies on dance and culture. She is the President of the International Association of Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS).[ citation needed ]
In 1997 Karin was appointed as Assistant to the Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet, Ross Stretton until 2001. Currently she is the Head of Artistic Studies and Kinetic Educator at the Australian Ballet School. Karin is the Patron for the (Laurel Martyn) Movement and Dance Education Centre in Melbourne.
In 2023 she published "The Art and Science of Ballet Dancing and Teaching: Integrating Mind, Brain and Body". [2]
The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and director Dame Peggy van Praagh as founding artistic director. Today, it is recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies and performs upwards of 150 performances a year.
Dame Catherine Margaret Mary Scott, was a South African-born pioneering ballet dancer who found fame as a teacher, choreographer, and school administrator in Australia. As the first director of the Australian Ballet School, she is recognised as one of the founders of the strong ballet tradition of her adopted country.
Dame Margaret van Praagh was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, repetiteur, producer, advocate and director, who spent much of her later career in Australia.
Garth de Burgh Welch is an Australian dancer and choreographer.
Jodie-Anne White-Bivona was an Australian dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the Ballet Theatre of Queensland.
Marilyn Patricia Rowe is the first graduate of the Australian Ballet School to be appointed its director, in 1999.
Kathleen Ann "Kathy" Gorham was an Australian ballerina.
Paul Clement Hammond OAM was an Australian ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Edouard Borovansky was a Czech-born Australian ballet dancer, choreographer and director. After touring with Anna Pavlova's company, he and his wife, Xenia, settled in Australia where they established the Borovansky Ballet company. This company provided the foundation for modern ballet in Australia and was subsequently used as the basis for the first national Australian ballet company, The Australian Ballet which was established in 1962.
Laurel Martyn was an Australian ballerina.
The Australian Archives of the Dance is Australia’s oldest specialist dance archive. Established by The Australian Ballet in 1972, the Archive was transferred to the Performing Arts Collection of the Melbourne Arts Centre in 1998.
Roma Jean Egan was a child actress on Australian television, and an Australian ballet dancer and teacher. She was notably a senior soloist for The Australian Ballet, and variously performed for the Queensland Ballet, Basel Ballet, Ballet Victoria and Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Anne Elder was an Australian ballet dancer and poet.
Michelle Anne Potter is an Australian dance writer, critic, archivist, and curator of historical materials. Her research and writing have focused on but have not been restricted to Australian dance history. She was honoured for her achievements with the award of Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2023 Australia Day Honours list.
Elaine Fifield was an Australian ballerina, perhaps best known for creating the title role in John Cranko's comic ballet Pineapple Poll in 1951.
Xenia Nikolaeva Smirnova Krüger Borovansky was a Russian-born dancer and choreographer, based in Australia after 1939. She was principal teacher at the Melbourne Academy of Russian Ballet, and active in running the Borovansky Ballet.
Peggy Sager was an Australian dancer and educator.
Joan Margaret Anne Gadsdon was an Australian ballet dancer, actor and artist. She was one of the pioneers of early Australian ballet in the 1940s, performing with the newly established Kirsova and Borovansky ballet companies. After emigrating to Great Britain she achieved minor theatrical fame in 1953 in London by stepping in at the last moment to save the famous British stage musical The Boy Friend from almost certain oblivion. She continued to appear to some acclaim in the show in its West End run before retiring from the stage in 1959.
Rachel Cameron was an Australian ballet dancer and teacher. She was one of the leading dancers in early Australian ballet in the 1940s, performing with the Borovansky and Kirsova ballet companies, and was one of the first ballet dancers in Australia to reach the rank of principal. After emigrating to Great Britain she was an inspirational educator of ballet teachers at the Royal Academy of Dance in London for over forty years. In 2010, she received the Royal Academy of Dance's prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in recognition of her outstanding services to ballet.
The Kirsova Ballet was the first professional Australian ballet company. It was founded by prima ballerina Hélène Kirsova in 1941. Initially the leading performers were dancers who had stayed in Australia following the 1938/1939 tour of the Covent Garden Russian Ballet, but they were supported by talented young Australian dancers promoted from Kirsova's ballet school in Sydney. These local performers soon led the troupe and appeared in several seasons in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. The company also supported Australian composers, musicians, artists and designers in producing new ballets choreographed by Kirsova. Struggling under wartime restrictions, unable to tour abroad, and later suffering creative differences with the country's main theatre owners, the company's prominence was brief. It closed in 1945 having been the pioneer of a genuine Australian ballet tradition. Its influence on Australian ballet was significant.
